On Thursday, Idaho prosecutors presented a recorded phone call in which a family friend confronted Chad Daybell and Lori Daybell Vallow about their children’s whereabouts.
Vallow Daybell’s two children, J.J. Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, were reportedly found buried on Daybell’s property in June 2020, nine months after they vanished. Vallow Daybell’s former friend, Melanie Gibb, recorded a phone call in which Daybell is heard laughing after she asks about the two children’s whereabouts, according to the East Idaho News.
“We’re just hanging out,” he said during the call which took place before the discovery of the two bodies.
Vallow Daybell assures Gibb that J.J. is “safe and happy,” but she also mentions how people are after her, the East Idaho News reported.
“If you knew where JJ was, that puts you in danger,” Daybell says.
According to the news outlet, Gibb told police in late November or early December 2019 that J.J. was not with her. At some point, Gibb allegedly asked Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, about J.J.’s whereabouts, but Cox said he was somewhere he cannot be found.
In June 2020, Rexburg police reportedly found the children buried at the pet cemetery on Daybell’s property. Ryan was reportedly dismembered and burned and her remains were located near a burn pit. J.J. was in a plastic bag that was wrapped in plastic; his face, arms, wrists, and feet were wrapped in duct tape.
Daybell is also charged with killing the two children. Additionally, the couple is charged with killing Daybell’s first wife in 2019. Vallow Daybell is also charged in Arizona with conspiracy to commit murder for the death of her first husband, Charles Vallow, who was fatally shot by Cox in 2019.
Vallow Daybell is currently on trial and her husband will stand trial separately at a later date.
Vallow Daybell said she was with Gibb, David Warwick, or Chad Daybell when her son and daughter died in her brother’s apartment in Rexburg, Idaho. Vallow Daybell allegedly said she was at her residence, also in Rexburg.
Vallow Daybell claimed she was in Hawaii when Tammy Daybell was killed at her husband’s home in Salem, Indiana. Vallow Daybell stated she was with two other people at the time.
Vallow Daybell — who is believed to have been involved in a so-called doomsday cult — allegedly told a friend that her children had become zombies and the only way to exorcise their bodies of evil spirits was to kill them.
Vallow Daybell underwent psychiatric treatment before she was deemed fit to stand trial. She is not facing the death penalty. Cameras are not allowed in the courtroom per a court order.
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[Featured image: Tylee Ryan and Lori Vallow/Chandler Police]
